The Swans of Fifth Avenue

The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin, 341 pages

In his heyday, Truman Capote had a fantastic martini-and-gossip-filled relationship with a gaggle of New York socialites. Benjamin's novel explores this high society set, and particularly Capote's oddly close friendship with social queen Babe Paley, through its high points in the 1950s and into the odd falling out between Capote and the society ladies in the 1960s. Benjamin's writing is sumptuous and evocative, and, as similar as these women could be, she does an excellent job of distinguishing them. It's a fascinating story, and as always with this sort of book, I'm left wondering how much is true (particularly when so many of the characters are self-described liars, whether their aim is to create gossip or keep up appearances). Something tells me I'll need to be doing some more research into these people!